Let Me Try Again

A Romantic Tragicomedy of Faith, Family, and Folly

Ross, twenty-three, isn’t nearly as clever as he thinks he is. His brilliant idea to break up with his girlfriend, Lora Liamant, in an attempt to show her how terrible other men are and how empty life would be without him, has backfired spectacularly. Within weeks, he discovers she’s moved on with the brother of a famous network TV actor. In the midst of his heartbreak, Ross’s parents die tragically—in a helicopter crash at an all-inclusive resort in Turks and Caicos—leaving him with millions of dollars and custody over his teenage sister.

Traumatized, ruminating, and rich, Ross plots scheme after scheme to show Lora he’s changed into a responsible adult, even as she shows no indication of wanting that. Everything he does seems to make matters worse, as his misguided mission of self-transformation only leads to Lora’s confusion and dismay.

Let Me Try Again is an electric picaresque charting a young Jewish man’s spiral of neurotic pride and self-improvement within a culture that only caters to his worst impulses. Brimming with vitality and crackling with wit, Matthew Davis’s dynamic debut illuminates the absurdities of twenty-first-century life with ecstatic flair.
 

Matthew Davis is a software engineer whose work has been published in The Verge, Hobart, Forever Magazine, and Heavy Traffic, among other publications. He lives in New York City. 

"A fascinating, original, and deftly crafted read from start to finish . . . .  Let Me Try Again is a compelling and memorable work of fiction raised to an impressive level of literary excellence."—Michael Dunford, Midwest Book Review

“Of this wave of twenty-first century novels . . . the most readable, and perhaps the best, is Matthew Davis’ Let Me Try Again.”—ROSS BARKAN

"A ridiculously funny and absurd tale of heartbreak in the modern age, Let Me Try Again is as witty and sharp as debuts come."—SAM FRANZINI, Our Culture Magazine

"One of the more interesting characters to follow in a crowded literary scene. His sharply satirical and very funny debut, Let Me Try Again, [is] one of the best books I've read in years."—PERFECTLY IMPERFECT

"Matthew Davis’ compelling debut has a voice you fall into as easily as the holes of your own self-delusion. A humiliatingly accurate portrait of our so-called modern life, Davis’ prose is blisteringly funny and alive."—LANGUAGE ARTS 

“We root for Ross by the end of Let Me Try Again. Similarly, we might find ourselves rooting for Davis, who is observant, willing to offend with his observations, and funnier than the great majority of working novelists.”—LOS ANGELES REVIEW OF BOOKS

"An entertaining Easter Egg hunt, where snappy references elicit chuckles."—TABLET

“The book is an earnestly moral self-reckoning with masculinity, with influences, with faith, erudite beyond Davis’s years, examining things like the role of ethics in dismantling utilitarianism and finance without forgetting to be funny. It’s punchy and doesn’t really miss.”—MANUEL MARRERO, Expat Press

"I highly enjoyed this darkly comical, compulsively readable novel about love and obsession. Woody Allen-esque."—TAO LIN, author of Leave Society and Taipei

"Matthew Davis has a distinct, charming and compelling voice—funny, original, contemporary and clear, with sprinkles of Bret Easton Ellis, Philip Roth, and even Helen DeWitt."—SHEILA HETI, New York Times bestselling author of  Motherhood and How Should a Person Be?
 
“Matthew Davis is that startling anomaly: a real writer in unreal times.”—BRUCE WAGNER, author of Dead Stars and Roar: American Master

"Matthew Davis's singular voice gripped me from the first page and didn't let go. I adored this off-kilter, hilarious, and surprisingly vulnerable novel."—ANNA DORN, author of Perfume and Pain

"Genuinely funny and subversive in the blasphemous spirit of Roth. Matthew Davis has created a truly diabolical protagonist."—LEXI FREIMAN, author of The Book of Ayn

"A total tour de force. Voice of a generation mode. Beyond irony and sincerity, it's just real. Sweet, silly, sensitive, smart. :3"—HONOR LEVY, author of My First Book 

"Electric, confident, and very funny. At a time when many contemporary novelists seem to have an antagonistic relationship with the reader — trying to bore them, alienate them, punish them, or terrorize them with nonsensically terrible writing—Davis is a generous entertainer, and he delivers the goods."—JORDAN CASTRO, author of The Novelist